Maternity panty garment



Feb. 22, 1949. w, JACOBSON 2,462,195

MATERNITY PANTY GARMENT Filed April 15, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ILAMAE W. JACOBSON I ATTORNEYS Feb. 22, 1949. l. w. JACOBSQN 2,462,195

MATERNITY PANTY GARMENT 'Filed April 15, l948 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 6

. INVENTQR \LAMAE w. JACOBSON ATTORNEYS parts throughout the several views and Patented Feb. 22, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MATERNITY PAN TY GARMENT Ilamae W. Jacobson, Minneapolis, Minn., assignor to Kickernick, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Application April 15, 1948, Serial No. 21,168

3 Claims.

1 This invention relates to women's undergarments and particularly to a panty garment especially designed for pregnant women.

It has long been a problem for pregnant women to retain the upper portion of their panty garments up around their waist especially in the later stages of the pregnancy. The bulging of the expectant mother tends to pull the conventional garments down and this'i-s both uncomfortable and unsightly.

It is an object of my invention to provide a novel and improved panty garment especially designed for use by pregnant women throughout the entire period of the pregnancy and which is particularly adapted to permit the upper extremity thereof to be maintained in comfortable position above the waist of the wearer even in the last stages of the pregnancy.

It is another object to provide a maternity panty garment for women having the front panel thereof substantially enlarged both laterally and longitudinally to provide fullness for future expansion and having a plurality of arcuately shirred segments vertically spaced across the lower portion of said enlarged front panel, to resiliently gather the surplus material of the gar- ;ment and permit the same to fit snugly even though said garment'is not fully filled out while providing ample fullness for the later stages of the pregnancy.

It is still a further object to provide a panty garment for pregnant women made from a plurality of interconnected sections, the front sections being substantially longer than the back sections to provide the necessary vertical fullness for future expansion. 7

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like refer ence characters refer to the same or similar in which; Fig. l is a front elevational view of my improved maternity panty garment shown as Worn by a woman in the early stages of pregnancy;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the garment and woman shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an elevational view as viewed partially from the front and partially from the Fig. 6 is a plan view of the back section of the pattern laid out fiat;

Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, are plan views of the side sections of the pattern laid out fiat;

Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 are plan views of the front panel sections of the pattern laid out fiat; and,

Fig. 11 is a plan view ofthe crotch section of the pattern laid out flat.

As illustrated in the'accompanying drawings,

I provide a maternity panty garment made from a plurality of sections of soft, pliable material secured together as by being sewed. In the form of the invention illustrated, a back panel ,Mas shown in Fig. 6 is provided having a top edge 15, side edges l6 and H respectively, and bottom edges 18 and IS with the crotch receiving center portion 20. As shown in Figs. 7 and 8, I provide two side-sections 2! and 22 respec" tively, and having the top edges 23 and 24 respectively, the side edges 25 and 26 respectively, front edges 21 and 28 respectively and the bottom edges 29 and 30 respectively with the crotch attachment portions 3! and 32 respectively. Two front sections 33 and 34 respectively, are provided in the form illustrated and are best shown in Figs. 9 and 10. The sections 33 and 34 have top .edges, 35 and 36 respectively, outer side edges 37 and 38 respectively, center edges, 39 and 40 respectively, and bottom edges 4| and 42 respectively. I provide a crotch insert section 43 having the back'edge M and the front edge 45 with the two side edges 46 and 41.

From the pattern sections illustrated in Fig. 6 to Fig. 11 inclusive, it will be apparent that the front portion of the, garment will be substantially longer than the rear portion. In assem- Zblin'gi the "garment, the two side edge portions 25 and 26 of side sections 2! and 22 are respectively joined to the side edge portions l6 and ll of the back panel M as by being sewed thereto. The front sections 33 and 34 are joined as :panel. sewed to the front panel in the form of concenby having their front edges 39 and 40 sewed together to form a front panel for the garment. This front panel is interposed between the two side sections 2| and 22 and is interconnected therewith as by having the side edge sections 31 and 38 of front sections 33 and 34 respectively sewed to side edges 21 and 28 of said side sections 2| and 22. The crotch section 43 then connected to the garment as by having back edge 44 sewed to the central bottom edge portion 20 of back panel l4 and by having the crotch attachment portions 3| and 32 of the side sections 21 and 22 sewed to the respective side portions of the front edge 45 of crotch section 43. The central portion of front edge 45 is sewed to the two bottom edges 4| and 42 of the front panel 33 and 34 which form a continuous bottom edge of the front panel. It will be seen that the bottom edge of the front panel will be gathered considerably as best shown in Fig. 4. The bottom edges l8 of back panel l4, and 29 of side panel 2| combine with the side edge 46 of the crotch section 43 to form one leg opening and the bottom edges l9 and 30 respectively of the back panel l4 and side section 22 combine with side edge 41 of crotch section 43 to form the other leg opening. In

the style of the garment illustrated, the leg openings and the trunk opening formed by the inter-connected respective sections have a highly resilient elastic material sewed around the marginal portion thereof to resiliently gather the material surrounding the respective openings and lightly embrace the portion of the wearer surrounded thereby at the respective openings. The elastic gathers around the respective openings are adjusted to apply only very slight pressure against the legs and trunk of the wearer.

Before the front panel is joined to the rest of the garment, the lower portion thereof is drawn together by a plurality of spaced highly resilient easily stretchable elastic elements to form shirring in the lower portion of the front These elastic. shirring elements are tric arcuately' curved segments curving upwardly toward the center thereof as best shown in Figs. 9 and 10. The natural tendency of the arcuate elastic shirring elements is to exert 4 cause they do not have additional length or fullness in the front panel. My improved garment with the elongated front panel can be pulled up above the bulge and has the necessary fullness to eliminate any downward pulling on the front panel and the discomfort of having the elastic top tightly stretched across substantially the largest portion of the wearer. Also, when the elastic top of conventional garments extends across the largest portion of the wearer, a line will be formed which will be clearly visible through the outer clothing of the wearer because the said outer clothingwill obviously be tight against the wearer at this largest point. The elastic shirring at the lower portion of the front panel does not in any way support the wearer but is merely provided to gather the excess mastraight line pull to form the shirring in the lower portion of the front panel. The upper portion of the elongated front panel will thus be pulled down by this tendency of the elastic elements to straighten out, and said front panel not filled out, the panty garment will fit snugly and smoothly while at the same time providing .ample room for expansion necessary for the later stages of the pregnancy.

It will be-seen that I have provided a highly emcient maternity panty garment which can be worn by an expectantmother throughout the entire period of the pregnancy without any uncomfortable downwardpulling of the upper extremity thereof or any uncomfortable bunching of the garment. None of the conventional panty garments has the necessary fullnessin the front panel thereof to permit the top portion of the garment to be retained up around the waist of the wearer during the later stages of the pregnancy. These conventional garments are pulled down by the outwardly protruded bulge formed by the fetus within the expectant mother beof the pregnancy and permits the wearer to wear the same garment throughout the entire period of the pregnancy and thus obviates the necessity of periodically buying larger garments which as we have shown would not solve the problem. My garment provides added fullness only in the front thereof and has only the conventional seat design. It would, of course, not have the excessive fullness across the seat that would be encountered by buying progressively larger sizes.

It will, of course, be understood, that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. A maternity panty garment comprising a seat and back portion, side portions and a front panel for covering the central portion of the abdomen of the wearer, said front panel being formed from two longitudinal sections of material of substantially greater length than the back portion of the garment to provide longitud inal fullness and having joined longitudinal edges at the front of the garment, at least the side edges of said sections opposite saidjoined' front edges being generally convexly curved throughout their lengths to form diminished top and bottom end portions and provide, when joined, additional lateral fullness in the abdominal portion of the garment, and a plurality of spaced, highly elastic elements connected with said front panel in the form of substantially upward curved concentric arcs to resiliently shirr the excess material in the front panel of the garment, both downwardly and laterally to lightly embrace the body ofthe wearer at all times.

2. A maternity panty garment comprising a seat and back portion, side portions and an elongated, central, front abdominal panelextending upwardly from the crotch of the garment and connected with said side portions, said panel having a widened intermediate portion to provide a lateral fullness in said panel and being of 5 and having the side edges thereof connected with said side portions and having additional lateral fullness in the central portion thereof, said garment having a pair of leg openings and a trunk opening, a plurality of spaced highly elastic elements connected with said front panel in the form of substantially upwardly curved concentric arcs to resiliently draw the excess material provided in the front portion of the garment to- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number gether both downwardly and laterally to lightly 10 2,1345% embrace the body of the wearer at all times.

ILAMAE W. JACOBSON.

Name Date Gross Aug. 8, 1922 Fink Dec. 17, 1929 White Oct. 25, 1938 OHern Dec. 25, 1945 

